Grounded guide: All the changelogs for patches, content updates, and more

December Content Update 0.5.0 (December 15, 2020)

The December Content Update understandably dialed it down from the massive update the month before, and instead focused on further iterating on what already existed in Grounded. This mean new features for the pond with additional areas to explore and resources to collect.

Official changelog from Obsidian Entertainment. Original report from Windows Central.

Pond revamp features

• The Pond and Pond Lab have been revamped with additional puzzles, gameplay, and secrets to discover
• New underwater caves to find and explore
• New Pond Lab outposts
• New Resources: Algae, Muscle Sprouts
• New SCA.Bs to collect

Crafting content features

• Fin Flops+
• Diving Lantern+
• All smoothies now have a + version to unlock

Language translations features

• Russian, Polish, Korean, Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese localization added

Save system revamp features

• The save system for Xbox and Windows Store platforms has been refactored to be more robust and lightweight
• New saves going forward should be more reliable when it comes to saving player data and properly uploading it to the cloud
• The game will no longer need to do long cloud sync each time you boot it
• Syncing between consoles should be more reliable
• This will require a one-time save conversion step after logging in to convert any older saves to use the new system

Movement changes

• The player can jump out of the water at any location instead of just the edges

Combat changes

• Spear weapons can now be thrown in water
• The Koi Fish can eat creatures (and you!)
• 2 handed weapons now deal slightly more damage
• Water Boatmen now flee at a slower speed and have less HP
• Tadpoles flee at a slower speed
• Adjusting Dazzling Riposte; now reduces enemy defense after perfect block instead of reducing enemy attack
• Timing in between creature attacks is now random instead of it always being the same fixed amount of time
• Stamina regen is now reduced while you're actively holding block
• The blocked damage percentage is now based on weapon type instead of always being 75%

Interface changes

• There is now a game option to display the distance over player nameplates to see how far they are

World changes

• New caves to explore in the pond
• The Koi can now push pond foliage out of its way
• Juice Droplets despawn after 3 days, allowing new ones to drop out of the straws in case a spawned drop somehow got lost
• Eelgrass now respawns over time
• Holiday lights added to the house
• Improved lighting in the Pond / Pond lab
• Additional pond and pond lab set dressing

Buildings changes

• Some structures such as Foundations, Scaffolds, and Walls, now align to the ground from their corners instead of their center
• Some other buildings such as the Jerky Rack, Zipline Anchor, and Dew Catcher, now sit on their legs instead of on their center point only
• Tweaked the order of some buildings in the radial
• The Squared Roof Corner will now block wall crenellations below it

Crafting changes

• The recipe for decoy bait has been adjusted

Audio changes

• Audio improvements for drowning

Top community fixes

• Grid-snapping non-structural buildings on top of existing structures now work correctly
• Underground blueprints can now be canceled, either by looking at them or with Cancel Nearby Blueprints in the Game Preview Debug menu
• Fixed issue where dying in the depths would place your backpack at the starting spawn ravine
• Clients will no longer experience twitchy movement when moving on large structures
• Instances of "lame" were replaced or removed

Game fixes

• Buildings can no longer be briefly placed on canceled buildings
• Buildings can't be built on stuffed insects
• Buildings can't be built on other players' unplaced buildings
• Floating structures will stop bobbing if connected to solid ground
• The player can no longer jump while gliding

Items, equipment, & resources fixes

• Spike Strips can now be placed next to each other when snapped to a grid
• Hedge berries will now float correctly inside the pond lab, should you somehow manage to get one there
• Signs no longer flicker when they are being placed on walls
• Signs can now be optionally snapped to the grid
• Buoyant markers now float properly on the water's surface
• Decoy Bait now properly behaves as a lure for both swimming and non-swimming creatures
• Diving Bell Spider Chunks are now properly marked as a tier 2 material
• Decoy Bait no longer causes non-swimming creatures to float in wacky ways
• Fixed random crashes with Grass Plank Storage and Weed Log Storage buildings
• Chair interaction not working for building or recycling has been fixed

World fixes

Pond bubbles should pop before poking out of the surface Koi collision better matches its animations to prevent the player from clipping into the model as much